The silvical characteristics of about 200 forest
tree species and varieties are described. Most are native to the 50 United
States and Puerto Rico, but a few are introduced and naturalized. Information
on habitat, life history, and genetics is given for 15 genera, 63 species, and
20 varieties of conifers and for 58 genera, 128 species, and 6 varieties of
hardwoods. These represent most of the commercially important trees of the
United States and Canada and some of those from Mexico and the Caribbean
Islands, making this a reference for virtually all of North America. A special
feature of this edition is the inclusion of 19 tropical and subtropical
species. These additions are native and introduced trees of the southern border
of the United States from Florida to Texas and California, and also from Hawaii
and Puerto Rico.

Cover art: Natural stands of southern pine and cypress
bordering a lake in Noxubee County, MS.

Foreword

"Silvics of Forest Trees of the United States,"
Agriculture Handbook 271, was the first comprehensive document of its kind in
the United States. It was an edited compendium of research papers describing
silvical characteristics of 127 trees; the papers had been independently
prepared by specialists at U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service
experiment stations. The original "silvics manual" took 10 years to complete
and was published in 1965.

Our store of silvical and related knowledge has
markedly increased since that silvics manual was published 25 years ago. The
"Woody-Plant Seed Manual" of 1948 was updated in 1974 and issued as Agriculture
Handbook 450, "Seeds of Woody Plants in the United States." New names were
added to the literature in 1979 with Agriculture Handbook 541, "Checklist of
United States Trees (Native and Naturalized)," which superseded Agriculture
Handbook 41. In 1980, the 1954 Society of American Foresters' publication,
"Forest Cover Types of the United States and Canada," was revised. A six-volume
"Atlas of United States Trees" (U.S. Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous
Publications 1146, 1293, 1314, 1342, 1361, and 1410) added tree range maps of
most major and minor tree species to the literature. It was both appropriate
and timely, therefore, to revise the information in the original silvics manual
and to add other native and naturalized trees to the compendium.

"Silvics of North America" describes the silvical
characteristics of about 200 conifers and hardwood trees in the conterminous
United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Individual articles were
researched and written by knowledgeable Forest Service, university, and
cooperating scientists. They were reviewed by their counterparts in research
and academia. The project took 10 years to complete. The revised manual retains
all of the essential material from the original publication, plus new
information accumulated over the past quarter of a century. It promises to
serve as a useful reference and teaching tool for researchers, educators, and
practicing foresters both within the United States and abroad.

Jerry A. SescoDeputy Chief for
Research

The use of trade names in this publication is for
the information and convenience of the reader, and does not constitute official
endorsement or approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of any product to
the exclusion of others that may be suitable.

This publication also reports research involving
pesticides. It does not contain recommendations for their use, nor does it
imply that the uses discussed here have been registered. All uses of pesticides
must be registered by appropriate State and/or Federal agencies before they can
be recommended.

Acknowledgments

This handbook is the result of a service wide project of Timber
Management Research, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is an
expansion of "Silvics of Forest Trees of the United States," originally
published in 1965, and supersedes that handbook.

Individual papers contained in the two volumes of
"Silvics of North America" were written by research foresters at U.S.
Department of Agriculture Forest Service experiment stations and at several
universities. Technical content was edited by Russell M. Burns, Silviculturist,
and compilation and coordination of the project were by Russell M. Burns and
Barbara H. Honkala, Botanist, of Timber Management Research, Washington, DC.
Barbara Honkala revised the tree range maps and prepared lists of botanical,
bird, and mammal names. Bums and Honkala prepared the glossary and the summary
of shade tolerance classes, tree and flowering characteristics, type of seed
germination, and order of soils on which trees most commonly grow. Robert L.
Lyon, Entomologist, Arthur L. Schipper, and Charles S. Hodges, Jr.,
Pathologists, Forest Insect and Disease Research, Washington, DC, and Harold H.
Burdsall, Jr., Mycologist, Process and Protection Research, Forest Products
Laboratory, Madison, WI, reviewed and listed names of insects, mites, and
organisms causing tree diseases. William G. Hauser, formerly of the Forest
Service Permanent Image Collection, Washington, DC, assisted with the
acquisition of photographs. Elbert L. Little, Jr., Dendrologist (retired),
assisted in proofreading.

During the last year and a half, the project was
directed by Robert D. Wray, Leader, Information Services (retired), North
Central Forest Experiment Station. Wray edited the final revisions and guided
the book through the production and printing processes. The North Central
Station also provided clerical and administrative support during the
pre-publication process. Robert P. Schultz, Assistant Director for Research,
Southern Forest Experiment Station, served as technical reviewer and advisor
for the final revisions.